Do You Remember? Blue Jay Orchards becomes the county's first permanently preserved farm

Published 11:53 pm, Saturday, July 31, 2010

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St. Peter Boy Scouts of Danbury are seen here in camp at Zoar Lake in 1925.

St. Peter Boy Scouts of Danbury are seen here in camp at Zoar Lake in 1925.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Do You Remember? Blue Jay Orchards becomes the county's first permanently preserved farm

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From The News-Times files

25 years ago

Gov. William O'Neill stopped by Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel over the weekend to say "a few kind words" about the county's first permanently preserved farm.

He also presented owners Paul and Mary Patterson with a rough version of a saying that will eventually be engraved on a bronze plaque to be placed on a wall in one of the orchard's buildings, commemorating it as the first farm in Fairfield County to be preserved under the Connecticut Farmland Preservation Program.

The governor was in town to attend the local Democratic Party's annual clambake but spent time at the Plumtrees Road orchard to meet the Pattersons and long-time owner Robert Josephy, who sold the farm to the Pattersons in April (1985).

Steven Schneider of Sherman has just completed a 26-day bicycle odyssey that began in Oregon, stretched cross-country to Virginia, then snaked up the East Coast to Sherman.

The trip was sponsored by Civitan, an international service organization, to benefit the International Special Olympics.

The Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury is sponsoring a two-week experiment in which Roman Catholic inmates are pounding nails and doing electrical work to help repair a run-down church complex in Bridgeport.

Each of the participants in the St. Charles Parish project has less than a year to go on his sentence and was chosen for his good attitude.

A propane gas explosion in a Main Street shopping center in Ridgefield yesterday morning (July 29, 1985) destroyed the Galloway's Pub restaurant, damaged about 30 parked cars' and knocked windows out of several downtown shops.

"It was like a mini-atomic bomb," said Irving Gold, owner of Gold's Delicatessen across from Galloway's Pub.

Mayor James Dyer of Danbury, in New Milford for the monthly meeting of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials, was among area officials who browsed around town during the opening day of Village Fair Days.

The Rangers, a Danbury-based country band, played at the Levitt Pavilion in Westport this week. Members include Jeremy Alston, drums; Larry Bailey, lead guitar and banjo; Jim Monette, bass; and Bill Wize, guitar and vocals.

Some 4,000 fairgoers attended the Old Roxbury Days over the weekend.

50 years ago

Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon is sure of at least one vote in this area. Mrs. Josephine Rockwell Tobin of Silver Spring Road, Ridgefield, first cousin of Mrs. Pat Nixon, said this week that she will certainly vote for Mr. Nixon.

Presumably Mr. Nixon will also get the vote of Mrs. Richard J. Lynch Jr. of Ridgefield, another first cousin of Mrs. Nixon.

Mrs. Nixon has roots in this area, as the daughter of a Bethel native, William Ryan, one of 13 children of Patrick Sarsfield and Catherine (McHugh) Ryan, who lived at 31 Mansfield St., Bethel, where Mrs. Nixon's father grew up.

In his early 20s he went to California, where he was a cowboy and sailed on whaling ships.

Employed as an X-ray technician in Yonkers, N.Y., in the 1930s, Mrs. Nixon, then Pat Ryan, was a frequent visitor at the home of her aunt, Mrs. Anna Ryan Rockwell of Ridgefield.

Among other relatives of the Nixons in this area is a second cousin, Mrs. Edward J. Gallagher of Bethel, who may have some trouble deciding how to vote in November (1960) as her husband is a Democratic leader in Bethel.

A Danbury girl, Rosemary McIlrath, 18, will tour several states this summer as a dancer with the Manhattan Rockettes. Besides dancing with the group, Miss McIlrath will be one of four dancers who will introduce stars such as Pat Boone, Liberace, the Lennon Sisters, Rosemary Clooney and others.

Norman Tuchmann, 9, of New York City, a summer resident of Brookfield, and two playmates who were visiting the Tuchmanns, were playing in a field adjoining the abandoned quarry in back of the farm of Andrew Evanoski, which has been used as a swimming hole for years.

The children heard the cries of Mrs. Julia Buckley of New Haven and her son Andrew, 10, who were swimming in the quarry and had gone beyond their depth.

Without hesitation, Norman, an excellent swimmer who holds two medals in lifesaving competitions, rushed to the edge of the quarry, the water in which is supposed to be 50 feet deep.

Without removing his clothing or shoes, he dove in and brought the mother and son to safety.

The lad is modest about his achievement, for his parents knew nothing of it until Mrs. Buckley called to thank the boy and his parents.